Don't Take The First Offer On Cable/Internet

When we moved into our house, last October, we recieved an introductory rate with Mediacom for our cable and internet package. We have cable, DVR, and the highest speed Internet and pay $93. We don't have a home phone line.

In our last bill we recieved a notice saying our introductory time period was over, and next month we would have a new total. Of course, they didn't tell us what the new price was going to be! My husband and I decided that we could live without cable because all of the shows we watch are on the Internet, and our local library has a ton of kid's DVDs. They must have like 50 Thomas the Tank Engine DVD's, though it doesn't really matter since my son always wants the same one, darn you Salty!

Anyway, we decided we wouldn't pay more than we are paying now, and if that was our only choice we'd go down to Internet only. When we called they told us our package price was going up to $131.75, a $40 increase. Well we said absolutely not, and told the customer service guy to price up some new packages. Basically they were all ridiculous and so we told him we no longer wanted cable and to take us down to Internet only.

Well, amazingly after we told him that, he found one more package! If we signed a year contract, for only $5 more we could keep our current package. We happily agreed that $5 was worth keeping our cable. It probably equals out when you consider the cost of gas to and from the library.

So, the moral of the story, don't just accept the price you're paying for your cable package. Give them a call, it can't hurt anything. Threaten to change your service, they might just cut you a deal!